Reforms promised to fight customs' graft and crime

Nick McKenzie and Richard Baker

AUSTRALIAN customs services need ''massive reforms'' to confront corruption and organised crime, according to Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare, who has also vowed that officials involved in graft will be ripped ''out by the throat''.

Mr Clare has also revealed he will eventually place the tax office and ASIC under the watch of a soon-to-be expanded Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity (ACLEI), closing a major gap in the nation's anti-corruption system.

His comments come a day after Mr Clare's customs reform panel - led by former New South Wales justice James Wood - had it first meeting and was briefed by the federal police and anti-corruption tsar Philip Moss on the operations of an alleged drug smuggling cell of customs officers at Sydney airport.

They also follow revelations last week in Fairfax Media about the alleged involvement of other customs staff in organised crime and how the chronic under-resourcing of ACLEI had forced it to borrow resources from the agencies it was meant to oversee, including customs.

Mr Clare told Fairfax that he will soon release a customs reform blueprint and predicted the agency overhaul would take between three to five years.

''Massive reform of customs … is required to improve its structure and its culture,'' he said, while warning the public to ''expect more arrests''.

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Fairfax can also reveal that former customs deputy chief and high-ranking Defence Department official Michael Pezzullo will head the troubled agency. Mr Clare refused to confirm the appointment but sources said it was imminent.

Among Mr Pezzullo's first challenges will be automating many of customs' frontline jobs and shifting the agency's focus onto intelligence gathering to increase the detection of drug and gun importers.

Mr Pezzullo will also be faced with the daunting task of disciplining or reassigning dozens of staff in connection to misconduct uncovered as part of the ongoing customs' drug-smuggling inquiry.

Mr Clare said of the planned reforms: ''The sort of things I am talking about is improving supervision, management changes, improving leadership and changes to training and recruitment … It [customs] needs to act and behave like a law enforcement agency.''

Mr Clare said that an increasing reliance on computerised screening and processing of passengers at major airports would mean ''people doing different jobs'' and ''not necessarily'' staff cuts.

''The Asian century means … a big increase in passengers and a big increase in cargo and the key to tackling that challenge is automation,'' he said.

Asked if he was concerned that suspected corrupt officials were still working at the airport and other locations, he said it was a decision of the federal police and ACLEI, who are still running ongoing inquiries.

Mr Clare said he had told both agencies to ''hunt these [allegedly corrupt] people out, rip them out by the throat if necessary and if you need more powers, if you need more resources, just ask.

''I have got customs officers that are urging me on. I have had officers coming up to me and going, 'good on you, go get them'.''